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The NHS has launched a ‘zero-tolerance crackdown’ on ‘snooping’ staff, following a series of high-profile privacy breaches by doctors and nurses.
The move comes after over 50 members of staff were sanctioned for accessing records of victims involved in the Southport and Nottingham attacks last year.
Those found guilty will now face immediate suspension and will be locked out of NHS computer systems, in a bid to get on top of the worrying trend.
NHS England’s chief executive, Sir Jim Mackey, is urging trusts to act promptly, and suspend staff while incidents are investigated, rather than waiting for an outcome.
Suspicious activity will be flagged through routine monitoring and audits of NHS systems, allowing leaders to see who has accessed patient information and when.
The new restriction could see doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals lose their licence and face regulatory action that may prevent them from practising ever again.
‘Patient records contain some of the most private information people will ever share,’ Sir Jim Mackey said.
‘We have seen too many cases of people abusing that trust, and enough is enough.
214 NHS staff have lost their jobs and around 2,000 been sanctioned for snooping on sensitive patient data over the past five years
‘If someone is suspected of snooping, we cannot leave them in post with access to patients’ records while an investigation takes days or weeks.
‘From now on, we will expect them to be suspended and have their access to NHS systems cut off immediately, while the facts are established.
‘Anyone who thinks they can satisfy their curiosity by looking at a patient’s record should know this: they will be found out, they may lose their career, and could end up with a criminal record.’
The NHS has already taken a series of measures to tackle unauthorised access to patient information, including launching a nationwide campaign to remind staff of their responsibilities.
Guidance has also been issued to NHS organisations on preventing, monitoring, investigating and reporting unlawful access.
So far, at least 214 NHS staff are thought to have lost their jobs and around 2,000 been sanctioned for snooping on sensitive patient data over the past five years.
Among them are eleven members of staff, including doctors, at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust.
They were sacked for unlawfully accessing the medical records of the victims of the Nottingham attack, when students Barnaby Webber, 19, and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, 19, were killed by paranoid schizophrenic Valdo Calocane while walking back from a night out, in June 2023.
Another 12 received final written warnings while two had first written warnings.
At the time, Barnaby’s mother, Emma Webber labelled the breach of privacy by ‘staff who should know better’ ‘heartbreaking’.
‘I’d ask them all to consider how they would feel if it was their child or father.’
Dr Manjeet Shehmar, medical director at NUH, added: ‘To access the medical records of our patients without a legitimate reason is totally unacceptable and we are doing all we can to identify where and how that has happened.’
A further 48 members of staff at University Hospitals faced action for accessing the medical records of the victims of the Southport attack without appropriate reason.
In June, a former member of staff at the London Clinic was found to have attempted to sell ‘highly sensitive information’ about the Princess of Wales, who was a patient there.
